We live in a time where some of the tends, beliefs and styles of living sometimes go contrary to what will truly make us happy. We live in a day when people become scared of saying anything that may offend someone or that may be taken to personally. But I also know that if we cannot learn to stand up for what means the most to us the morality of the world we live in will far apart to shambles. Now is the time that we need brave people, now is the time we need people to stand up not shrink in their fear.
The first thing I want to address is our demand for now. I feel like patience is becoming a virtue of the past because we need it so little to get what we want, or think we want. With technological growth being as it is we always have something newer better, shiner and more attractive always on the way, most of the time before we are even ready for it. So of course we don't have to wait for something better, at least never for very long. Also with credit cards available to almost every class of people we no longer have a grasp on the concept that we will have more satisfaction in something that we have worked hard for, than something that we could just swipe a card for. Growth used to come not from getting what we wanted, but from traveling the road of patience and hard work that it took to get it. Now that road is almost nonexistent, no wonder we find so much disappointment in the things we sometimes think we want, we no longer have to work our butt off to get it.
Another thing is honesty. I feel like we live in a day of flattery and flirtation. The idea that at the end of the day it doesn't matter who we've lied to, just as long as they were flattered and happy by the time we ended the conversation. I very strongly feel that the way we treat others is a reflection of the way we look at our selves, and when we are lying to ourselves we have a hard time treating others honestly. There was a time that I looked in the mirror and told myself I was happy where I was at, I wanted to feel satisfied with myself rather than work hard to get to where I really would be happy. I don't believe that is an uncommon practice, in fact I think it's very frequent within our world today. I realized that I needed to be completely honest with myself, even if it hurt before I could handle my dealings with other people with complete honesty. There comes a time in life where either you choose to be honest with yourself and others or you will find yourself living a life of false securities, and vain delusions. When you realize that the only reason you focus so much on your body and material things is because you cannot look any deeper into yourself without disliking what you see.
There is so much I could say about things I've learned and observed in myself and the world around me. But the thing that started me writing today was actually Blame. The blame that people place on everything around them has been digging into me for a while, and I am seizing this moment to get it off my chest. I don't know how much we as a generation can better this world if we place the blame of problems going on in our society always on the heads of someone else. I'm not saying I never do this, or never have this problem, or even that there aren't people to blame. But I am saying that I have stepped back enough to know that it's a problem. There should come a day in everyone's lives where you look in the mirror and realize that everything that you are and have been is because of you. Not your neighbor, not your bishop or anyone else. Yes there are times that what you have, or don't have is out of your hands. Sometimes tragedy strikes and you loose loved ones, homes, your physical health and many other plagues that prey on every person to have ever walked this earth. But who you become through those times is your choice, based on your actions, you steer your ship in the direction you choose, not matter the size of the waves that attack you in the storms of life. You can change the direction your life, and no one else can make that choice for you. Fact! You determine the end result of who you become, that lot has been given to you and never will be taken away. It's a gift to us from a father that loved us enough to entrust us with it. Yes you need others in your life to enlighten you and help you as you choose, and we all need the cleansing of the atonement that makes our lives possible. But we are responsible for our actions and no one else's. You can not manipulate control or demean people into changing, just as they can not control you. The faster we realize that the more effective, happy, and motivated we will feel. But you can not live the rest of your lives feeling like some of the ruts you get in are all someone else's fault, the more you place blame, the more stuck you get. You are the empowering person in your life. If you want to be happy, look at yourself and make that choice, because really it's in you hands, no one else can make you be happy.
We have wonderful lives of promise a head of us, but in today's world we desperately need people who are willing to stand up and stand out. We can't afford to fit in with the everyday average person, we don't average, we need extraordinary. Dear Generation I think we have the potential to be that. But we can not put on the worldly camouflage to just blend it. We NEED to be different.
